Okay, all my short story first drafts are done. I was able to finish one and get it ready for submissions, so yay me! Now it's time to move back to the novel. Enough incubation has taken place.
The problem is it's taking me a little more motivation than usual to get back into it. Maybe it's because of the prospect of working on a huge novel again, as opposed to the more digestible short stories. Maybe it's because there's so much work to be done on the very rough, get-it-out-of-me draft. I need to add 15,000 words and trim 10% at the same time. There's a lot of plot holes, things that weren't sufficiently explained, and things that just don't flow well together. It's intimidating.
I'm not sure which is worse: writing the first draft or revising it. The first almost seems easier, because there's no qualifications on the quality of your writing. But I took off the caveat on the top of my draft "I give you permission to write badly", and it just hit me--I have to try now. The maxim no longer applies. Now I have to write goodly.Labels: Mermaid Story, writing